Process of japanning wire.



No. 662.248. Patented Nov. 20, I900.

, J. H. VINTUN. I

PROCESS OF JAPANNING WIRE.

(Application filed May 4, 1900.) (N o M 0 do I.)

F/gi-Z- WITNESSES- INVENTEIR- o c, we NORM: PE u UNITED STATES JOHN H.VINTON, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE E.

PATENT Orricn.

PARKER, OF SAME PLACE.

PROCESS OF JAPANNING WIRE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 662,248, dated November20, 1900.

Application filed May 4, 1900. Serial No. 15,484. (No specimens.)

To all whom, it. may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN H. VINTON, a citizen of the United States,residing in Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts,have invented an Improvement in Processes of Coating Wire, of which thefollowing description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, isa specification, like characters on the drawings representing like IOparts.

This invention relates to a method of covering long lengths of wire witha coating, so that the wire may be taken from a reel covered with thecoating and wound into the form of a coil without danger of contiguousconvolutions of the coil being cemented together and so that the coiledwire maybe unwound and bent without stripping, cracking, or breaking offthe coating, thereby enabling the coated wire to be supplied to thetrade in the form of coils of any desired length and capable of beingused with automatic machines. For this purpose the wire is first drawnthrough a'bath of thin coating material of a composition, as will bedescribed, which is laid on smoothly and uniformly by a wiper of fibrousmaterial partially immersed in said bath, then through an oven ofsuitable length and heated to a substantially high temperature to enablethe coating to be firmly baked onto the wire without burning the saidcoating, and from said even the coated wire is wound into the form of acoil ready for use. The wire on its passage through the bakingoven iskept taut or placed under tension sufficient to prevent it touching thewalls of the oven, which, if permitted, would strip the coating from thewire, and thus spoil the same for practical purposes.

Figure 1 is a plan view of one form of apparatus with which to practicethis invention. Fig. 2 is a partial elevation and section of theapparatus shown in Fig l; and Fig. 3, a detail, on an enlarged scale, ofthe coated wire.

Referring to the drawings, a represents a suitable receptacle 01' vesselcontaining a substantially thin coating liquid 1), which is to beapplied to the wire 0, taken from the coil (Z, placed upon a suitablerevolving reel 6. The

wire 0, as shown in the drawings, is passed over suitable guiding andsupporting rollsfg and between suitable friction-jaws 71/6 The wire 0after passing over the guide-roll g is immersed in the bath of liquid Z)by being carried under the roll or wheel j, which is partly submerged insaid bath. The wire 0 after passing from the bath Z) is carried througha substantially long baking-oven (represented in the presentinstance asa pipe It) inclined upward from its inlet to its outlet end and suppliedwith heat, as herein shown, by gas-furnaces l m, the oven Itconstituting in the present instance the outlet-pipe for the furnaces Im and being provided at its upper end with a branch outlet-pipe n, whichin practice is connected with the chimney. The oven 7t is provided withend pieces 0 p, having suitable ports or openings 0 .9, through whichthe wire is passed.

The wire as it leaves the bath of coating liquid is passed over a wipert, of any suitable fibrous material and preferably felt, which has itslower end immersed in the liquid, and through which wiper the wire isdrawn and, in fact, is embedded in the same, so that a thin, smooth,uniform, and even coating 10 of the liquid is applied to the wire. Thewiper t is kept saturated with the thin liquid 1) by capillaryattraction, which insures a uniform coating, which is rendered smooth bythe passage of the wire through said wiper.

The coated wire on its passage through the even it is subjected to asubstantially uniform heat, preferably to about 550 Fahrenheit, which bythe time the Wire reaches the outlet end of the oven effectively bakesthe coating upon the wire, and the temperature of the oven iscontrolled, so that the coating material is not exposed to a heatsufficiently high to burn the same.

If the wire is subjected to a heat sufficiently high to burn the same,the life is taken out of the coating and the latter is reduced to apowdered form, which is readily brushed or stripped off of the wire.

The wire 0, with the coating 10 baked thereon, issues from the outletport or opening 8 of the baking-oven and passes over a guideroll it andunder a second guide-roll n, from which it passes to a reel w, rotatedby suitable machinery .and upon which the coated wire is wound into theform of a coil. The

gas-burners 4 5.

oven is preferably provided with a suitable opening 2 for the receptionof a thermometer 3, whereby the temperature of the oven may beascertained.

In the present instance the furnaces Zm are shown as gas-furnaces havingsuitable The oven la is made substantially long, so that the coated wiremay be gradually heated and the coating effectively baked thereonwithout destroying its vitality, and in practice I have ascertained thatas the oven is increased in length the temperature of the same may bematerially reduced.

The bath 0 is composed of guni-copal, linseed-oil, and turpentine insuit-able proportions to form a thin liquid of the consistency of water,which has imparted to it the black color desired by the addition ofbone-black, which I have found is particularly efficacious in connectionwith the copal-varnish to produce the coating desired, and the proper ordesired consistency of the coating-bath may be obtained by first makingthe black liquor by adding one part of bone-black to eight parts of thecopal-varnish and then thinning down this black liquor by mixing onepart of black liquor with about twenty parts of the copal-varnish.During the process of coating the wire the bath c,if permitted, wouldbecome more or less concentrated and too much of the coating materialwould be applied to the wire, which would result in too thick a coating,that is liable to be stripped off in the automatic machine and isfurther liable to crack or break off when the wire is bent over a smallformer to form a small article, such as a staple, and therefore the bathis maintained very thin and at a substantially constant consistency likewater by the addition from time to time of the thin copal-varnishwithout the bone-black.

Prior to this invention I am not aware that a wire of any materiallength, and especially a coil of wire, has ever been coated so as toenable it to be used with automatic machinery, such as button-settingmachines, as it is impracticable to immerse a coil of the uncovered wireinto a bath of coating material and then dry or bake the coatingthereon, for it will readily be seen that by this method theconvolutions of the coil would be cemented together by the bakingprocess, and when it was attempted to unwind the coil the coating wouldbe stripped off of contiguous convolutions.

A coil of wire having a coating of the character described is availablefor many purposes, and among other uses it is particularly well adaptedto be employed in connection with shoe machinery, and particularly withmachines for attaching buttons to boots and shoes by metallic staplescut from the coated wire, and in this connection the coated wire isparticularly serviceable, as the coating protects the wire fromoxidation, and consequently protects the boot or shoe fromdiscoloration, thereby removing a serious objection to the use of thisform of fastening for buttons in connection with bootsand shoes.

The coil of coated wire is also applicable for securing pieces ofleather or other material together by staples, and the objectionresulting from the discoloration of the material by rust is therebyavoided.

The apparatusherein shown and the article herein described are notherein claimed, as they respectively form the subject-matter of theapplications Serial No. 7,639, filed March, 7, 1900, and Serial No.15,483, filed March t, 1900.

I claim- The method of covering wire with a coating of the characterdescribed, which consists in passing the uncovered wire through a bathof thin coating liquid, and through a fibrous wiper partially immersedin said liquid, whereby a thin, smooth and uniform coating is applied tothe wire, and then through an oven maintained at a temperaturesufficiently high to bake the coating onto the wire without burning thesame, such temperature being above 450 Fahrenheit,substantially asdescribed.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN H. VINTON.

Witnesses:

JAS. H. CHURCHILL, J. MURPHY.

